Etiquette for a Knife Fight
Dying on Moral High Ground Hill
Dear California Common Cause,
…and others who are or have expressed opposition to Governor Gavin Newsom’s plan to offset the daylight attack on democracy by Trump, Abbott, Paxton, and the GOP.
STFU.
With all due respect, STFU.
California Common Cause’s wavering position on redistricting California to offset cheating in Texas began with opposition.
Common Cause has now shifted its stance, saying it will not categorically oppose California’s proposed “counterbalancing” redistricting—provided new maps meet fairness standards, gain voter approval, and expire after 2030.
League of Women Voters of California has consistently supported nonpartisan redistricting and strongly opposes Newsom’s plan, warning it undermines the integrity of the independent commission.
First, it’s cute how California Common Cause believes that fairness standards and voter approval will be important in 2030 and beyond based on the current authoritarian takeover of the three branches of the United States government. And great that organizations such as the League of Women Voters support nonpartisan redistricting and integrity.
The sentiment expressed by such organizations is easy because it is rendered from an ivory tower insulated by privilege. It would be similar to those who would view the courage of the French Resistance Underground with disdain, while offering that the French Underground should wait for free and fair elections if unhappy with the new management.
For groups espousing noble concepts such as nonpartisanship, morality, ethics, and fairness, perhaps you have been immersed in preserving your non-profit status during these tumultuous times in the United States. You’ve not noticed human garbage bags Greg Abbott and Ken Paxton’s extreme gerrymandering legislative sessions in Texas because criminal elect Trump ordered them to “find more GOP Congressional Districts.”?
Maybe you haven’t noticed the National Guard and the lethal fighting force, the Marines, being deployed to Los Angeles? You’ve not noticed the Federal takeover of the DC Police (an agency in which the criminal elect Trump has an unfortunate history of inciting mob violence against). The blanket pardons issued to those who followed Trump’s words to “fight like hell” as the idiot mob assaulted police, attempted to kidnap Members of Congress, and hang VP Mike Pence.
You’ve not noticed the subversion of the Department of Justice to act as Trump’s personal prosecutorial law firm to pursue anyone who has attempted to hold Trump accountable for his numerous crimes, corruption, and shredding of the Constitution.
You may not even be aware of the concentration camps springing up in Florida and elsewhere, and the people now languishing within their packed cages.
You’ve not noticed the extension of the tax cuts for the wealthy while raising the debt ceiling by $5 trillion because the tax cuts grow the economy, and then you don’t need to raise the debt ceiling, or wait, what?
You’ve been too busy to peruse the criminal elect’s executive order titled “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections”, a blatant attempt to disenfranchise voters. You’ve not noticed the appointments of insurrectionist election deniers to vital oversight agencies such as the Federal Election Commission and Trump’s undermining of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. You’ve not noticed the removal of senior civil servants from the DOJ’s Voting Rights section. You’ve forgotten about his call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to find 11,780 votes and disenfranchise Georgia voters who, in 2020, did not vote in the majority for an incompetent, corrupt, fraudulent, rapist of children.
But sure, let’s call for fairness. Bring and cite “Robert’s Rules of Order”. The passages will be like salve to the wounds of the failed American experiment in self-governance. The passages will bring relief to women who no longer have a right to vote and no longer have reproductive rights. It will be a pleasant consolation prize for marriages that have been invalidated by Christian Nationalist Fascism. The loss of access to healthcare of millions of our nation’s most economically vulnerable. The next pandemic that rages through the population, uncontrolled, while the worm-damaged Secretary of “Health”, is frightened by science and prefers we all swim in bacteria and excrement infested waters with him.
Any meaningful form of democracy requires an educated, informed, and engaged society. While the calls for fairness and integrity are important aspirational visions for our future, they are worse than meaningless now. The calls assume that we are on a solid foundation of democracy, equality, and justice -and can now move forward. They mask the blatant fact that the military has been ordered by the criminal elect to deploy to California. They ignore the fact that the criminal elect has taken over the DC police and is threatening other Democratic Party-controlled cities everywhere. The calls for fairness are absent an understanding that every one of Trump’s appointees are not leading an organization forward toward justice and equality -that they are charged with destroying any remaining independent oversight and guardrails against tyranny.
I applaud the outspoken courage and tactics of Governor Newsom, Governor Hochul, Governor Pritzker, and every individual of any political party who dares to use every available tool to defend against this all-out daylight assault on the United States by the criminal Trump, his insatiable billionaire donors, his GOP sycophants, and the Heritage Foundation.
And to those who don’t recognize that we are in a (at least so far, mostly non-shooting) war for the economic and political future of the United States, again I offer my advice.
Read the news while you still can (or better, watch “South Park”) and STFU.
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